Especially given the Internet and the vast array of options that people have to purchase home furnishings products.

One of the reasons that traffic is down in most trade and retail showrooms is that customers and designers are able to research and source product over the Internet, whereby reducing their need to physically shop to see, touch, learn about the products they are considering. If that logic continues, it means that everyone who DOES enter a showroom of ANY kind is truly somewhere in the buying process to purchase. Whether they CAN buy or not is up to them and where they are in their buying process. Whether or not they WILL buy is up to us and how we execute our selling process. That puts the responsibility for the accomplishment squarely on the shoulders of the seller, right?

Having a few questions to ask, such as “Tell me about how you have been researching this?” “Where have you already looked?” “What have you found – did you like it?” “If so, what kept you from moving ahead with it?” “What was still missing that has you continuing to look?”

Couple that with a buying process timeframe: less than 3 weeks for retail purchases, meaning you want to know how long they’ve been looking. Some people are quicker decision makers, some take longer. Knowing which is which is important to understand when they will complete their process.

Overall, BADAS questions are about the RESPONSES YOU GET… green light answers mean sell it today. Red light answers mean make an appointment today (on the phone or in the showroom or in their home) to sell it tomorrow. As a seller, you want to ASSUME that they can make a decision today until you ASSESS that they can’t – and determine the actions you need to take to make an appointment to forward the sale.

You can do this. It takes practice and focus, and the ability to be with the unfamiliar and the uncomfortable so that you can become familiar and comfortable directing the process by asking questions.

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*If you need a second set of eyes or ears on your business or your sales process, please drop me an email or pick up the phone and call me. We can accomplish a lot in a small slice of time! -Jody

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